1. Ask grief where the abode that was dwelt in has removed,
And if an inhabitant of the house has departed and gone away.

2. Previously, I used to conceal love till
A tear from the eye overflowed and revealed it.

3. It bestows though I forbid it and a sincere advisor warns,
And it rages though I deter it and a constant blamer censures.

4. Lo, one day I attained the object of love,
Despite the enemy, a day, by your life, that was wholesome,

5. And when we met in a winding valley,
On a hill amid which were wild beasts and birds of prey,

6. We mingled souls with souls, youthfully,
And embracing was narrow between us and clasping of hands familiar.

7. And the night we missed the way to you,
Only ambergris diffusing fragrance guided.

8. If it were not for scintillating pearls shaking their string,
Branches the winds were shaking would have misled us.

9. And unless you had shared conversation with us, fevers would have spread
their awnings,

10. And the rain-clouds lifting and trailing would not have been sated.
And if those play-fields had not been a meeting place

11. For the passionate, then no life to the play-fields!
They blame me wrongfully for my sincerity, while I

12. Give them some of the bounty I possess.
And whoever before was averse to me while we were

13. At the branch of a kalh tree, turtledoves moaning plaintively,
She coos but harbours no lament, only

14. Yearning and longing no wailers bewail.
So by God, a day of sadness when

15. Their eyes glanced toward us, brimming over with tears,
Love made its home in us while they were secure,

16. And they left us sick while they were healthy.
After I had bowed my head in homage

17. And the towering camel knelt before me, ambitious,
Will you suppose that I desire

18. To sing the praise of an ignoble abode,
While the beloved ones of Fehr ibn Malik know

19. That I have departed from those disgraces,
And that I do not approach dubious matters

20. Tolerated by a soul tolerant of itself?
And that I am not pleased by the insults of a group

21. Whose talk disgraces me and their jesting wounds,
Who carves but does not know who he has injured

22. And kindles fire but does not know with what he is igniting,
Nor has praise alluring in me flattered me,

23. And nothing flatters men but eulogies.
Were it not for pride in the kingdom, I would not have remained

24. While my saddle was on the back of the she-camel at night,
Nor ascended but dangerous roads the courageous, impetuous one,

25. Brave and renowned, would not have ventured on,
And its riders galloped with it toward its vale

26. As the standards of Thuhl and his allies plunged headlong into war,
When we reach it, say to our riding beasts–

27. “It is forbidden for your hooves, so swift, to advance
Any further with him for whom we desire no substitution;

28. No harm in your being skittish.”
To an abode whose buckets the eminent

29. Fill with bounty while the measure of gifts overflows,
To a sovereign whose seriousness is averse to jesting

30. And whose nature does not harbour any corruption,
Serene, though the fancies of men are capricious,

31. Who shows a smile while faces are frowning.
May God water for us days in his shade

32. Which give light amid the darkness of time,
Nights whose wishes descend upon us thickly

33. As pouring rain-clouds descended abundantly,
And when we disputed with each other his favour

34. And minds were stirred by what his hands bestow to compose panegyrics,
Eulogies that diffused perfume at dawn

35. Like the spreading of fragrance by the galingale-gatherer,
No speaker can attain the loftiness of your glory

36. And no one who praises you can fulfil your due,
And whoever concealed the favour from the people, hoping

37. It would be forgotten, was confronted by censure.
And they knew when sickness afflicted the king

38. And no obvious means appeared to cure the malady,
That you warded the sickness off from his domains

39. And you removed the burden from his shoulder,
And before they knew, you made their lands

40. Safe from every peril, fortress and rampart,
And a barren land on which you hurled

41. An army seeking conquest and plunder rapaciously,
So you shot not one arrow before the birds were

42. Soaking the hillocks and the forehead of the earth gushing blood,
And how many a day you think paltry but if

43. Another attained the like of it, a triumph though you succeed!
You have brought it time and again unasked

44. While none but you attained it in his lifetime, though striving.
I am none but one whose flank you have extended

45. To where the ambitious eyes do not look,
I go and come each day and night

46. While my back bears the burdens of your captivity,
Can I forget that you draw me near to the side

47. In which my share of your bounty is profitable?
And you make room for me in the assembly of the people, a space

48. In which their hearts though yearning are confined,
Thus I am none but one pasturing in your meadows

49. And I am none but one drawing on your provision.
Congratulate me on the day of festival, for it

50. And every epoch long for your pride,
Through you days become honoured though humiliated

51. And nights prosper through you though base.
For this is the season of good fortune made clear,

52. Its signs visible and the marks of joy plain,
And still you make time and its people your captives,